I started playing the blues a few years back in my mid 40s...I've played guitar (badly) since my teens, and was in a couple of bands at college, but never really learned to play properly. I suppose in the way of a mid-life crisis I picked up up the guitar, started listening to some people I'd heard of but never really listened to..and that started to shape my playing.
I went out and bought the boxed set of Robert Johnson recordings..and caught up with all those people I'd heard of but never REALLY listened to...
...people like John Lee Hooker, Lightnin' Hopkins, JB Lenoir, Muddy Waters, Howlin Wolf...
...and also caught up with some more contemporary stuff..Ry Cooder of course, RL Burnside, Catfish Keith, Watermelon Slim,Ian Seigal to name but a few.
So now, CIGAR BOX GUITARS are taking up a lot of my time..making them, selling them, playing them, promoting the UK cigar box guitar scene.
why not make cigar box six string guitars this way? Is it because the box is too weak? Why does every cigar box guitar have a piece of wood through the whole body length?
Hey John, excellent lesson. Thank you very very much for sharing this. Hey what kind of guitar is that? What year and what make is that out of curiosity? Thank you
@@KenBeam-CalifonNJ No worries. I really like these guitars, they were cheaply made, but the pickups are great and the necks are usually very stable. They do need setting up properly (the necks often need shimming to give a better break angle over the bridge), like any guitar, but because they were cheap, back in the day, most people didn't bother investing the time and effort to get them properly playable.
I have the Head and Cab. I moded the head with a mercury magnetics output transformer and a choke. I also upgraded the tone capacitors to the yellow MOJO Tone caps. In the cab , I swapped out the stock speaker for and eminence swamp thang. With these modes the little amp becomes a beast, much louder and much better sounding.. It will definitely work for gigs and practices. I no longer bring my Hiwatt clone that I built (Trinity TRiwatt) to practice and most gigs. It's way too loud for today's gigs and at low volumes teh Super Champ sounds much better. The Hiwatt clone needs to get those power tubes hot to get into the sweet spot. Side by side with my band mates modded blues JR, mine is a lot better. I would love to put it side by side with a princeton or a Tone master. I bet it would hold its own.
A friend rescued one from a flooded warehouse. The owner was throwing it in the dumpster. It had literally been floating. My friend got it dried out and working, and gave it to me. He also gave me a matched pair of original Westinghouse 6V6 tube/ valves out of a 1958 Magnavox HiFi. I disassembled it and cleaned the circuit board and valve sockets and cleaned and lubed the Pots. ( and got the smell out of it.) It works and looks like new. The Deluxe reverb setting ,7, is my preferred setting. I still prefer my Princeton Chorus, but the Super Champ X2 is a fun little amp.
Thanks for an excellent review. I have this exact amp with the Ragin' Cajun speaker and the foot switch. I am thrilled with the amp and it's hard to believe how fantastic it sounds and how many features it has - especially for the money. I've owned a Princeton, which is undoubtedly a great amp, and much louder, but a one-trick pony. And the fact that the X2 weighs almost 10 pounds less than the Princeton makes a huge difference for my back. I mainly play my Strat and Tele through the X2 and run them into an Ibanez TS9 Tube Screamer (with level at 10 and gain off) and sometimes a Wampler Ego compressor along with the TS9, and that's the secret sauce that makes an already great tone even greater (bigger and thicker), both on the clean and overdriven settings.
I've used Chickenbone Johns fret cutting template for the last few years. I built a mitre box from CBJ''s instructions with oak sides & 3/4' ply base. I use various hardwood offcuts for the height adjustment. I already had a similar Sheffield England made fret / gent saw so just bought the sturdy stainless steel slotting template for £19.75. Easy to use, works great & much better value than other vendors. Recommended.
First two are our "Toaster" pickup, www.chickenbonejohn.com/products/artec-mini-humbucker-pickup?_pos=1&_sid=fbae60ac2&_ss=r, the last one is our aged minihumbucker www.chickenbonejohn.com/products/mini-humbucker-pickup-antique-bronze-with-mounting-ring-pre-wired-available?_pos=1&_sid=dea769a00&_ss=r
Had one for Xmas 1977....Thought it was the bees knees, played it through an old Selma 50 watt amp. Moved on to other copies in the late 70's to an Avon Les Paul, then a MIJ squire which I wish I'd never got rid of 😏
It's not rechargeable, there are no batteries of any kind in this amp, so you have to use an external power supply, either a standard 9 Volt "wall wart" transformer or an external rechargeable battery pack.
Chicken Bone John, ..wanted to ask you, ..are those Charcoal Grey Frosted ones rare as chicken bone's teeth or somethin? Because never ever see em anywhere on my little internet land tv radar screen. I have one but it doesn't have the Pin bridge, it's a floating bridge type, tailpiece one. ..love your exquisite guitar playing, ..15:57 oh Jesus, you are goood, ..mmm, tasty, ..🦝🔥🌌
I've had two of them, kept one and not seen another. I'ver seen a two or three frosted ones in different colours out there on the inter web,but I reckon they are pretty rare.
Well John just made one of your kits and it’s awesome. It is my favourite instrument and I have two Ibanez guitars as well. If I hit the strings, put it down and walk off it’s still resonating as I lock my den door. 😎👍🏻
Nice demo mate. Vox is making a lot of great stuff these days. My neighbors want me to have an A.C. 30 or at least a fleet of pathfinder amps. Or both . This mini 5 looks like a lot of features in a small package. Great for someone starting out or for small practice space. Good job John.
thank you very much. was just looking about for correct info. you didn't give me the "answer" but you explained it so well i was able to get the correct answer for my question
